A week long campaign to encourage people to save electricity at Leicester City Council has seen a saving of nearly three tonnes of carbon dioxide.

City residents and businesses were encouraged to switch off all unnecessary lights and appliances from Monday 12 to Sunday 18 October as local councils across the county joined forces for the 'Big Switch Off'.

In Leicester, the city council promoted the Big Switch Off to its office-based staff, encouraging them to make sure that their 6,500 computers were turned off – and nothing left on standby – when they left their desks each night and over the weekend.

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Cabinet member for the environment, Cllr Sarah Russell, said: "The results of the big switch off across the city, and indeed the county, have been fantastic. Every scrap of electricity saved makes a difference and we just hope that our efforts will be recognised by the public and they too will make an effort to conserve energy.

"By becoming more conscious about the energy that we waste, we’ll all start to become more energy efficient – and that’s one of the best things anyone can do to reduce their contribution to climate change. Not only that, but energy saved has a financial benefit for us all – in fact it has been proved that we can save on average £30 a year. This is even more important in these tough financial times."

Libraries saved 6.16% of their energy usage over the week, with Southfield Library delivering an amazing 57.7% reduction all by itself. Over the week they saved over 512 kWh, which would equal nearly 30,000 kWh over a whole year (21 tonnes of CO2).

(CD/GK)